THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
Vou. XVI] SEPTEMBER, 1883. [No. 244. 
OBSERVATIONS ON INSECT-LIFE IN 1888. 
By Peter Incupap, F.L.S. 
I sHALL not confine my remarks to the plant-miners alone, as 
in previous years, but shall touch upon other representatives of 
insect-life that happen to have come under my notice during the 
current year. To ensure exactness as to time and date, I will 
tabulate my observations month by month. A calendar of this 
kind is more likely to attract the attention of collectors than one 
of a more diffuse and desultory character. 
March 30th.—Cecidomyia betule, Winnertz, first appeared in 
the glass-topped box; and these little gall-gnats continued to 
come forth from the capsules of the birch catkins of the previous 
year during the month of April. Sometimes I had a score in my 
box at one time. Small as this Cecid is, itis not free from the 
attacks of a still smaller Chalcid. Franz Low has admirably 
described the larval and pupal states of this tiny Cecid, and I had 
but to follow him in my researches. 
April 12th.—The deflected rosettes of Salix caprea gave 
forth their tenants on this and following days. I am still 
doubtful about its reputed identity with Cecidomyia rosaria. 
The bosses are all deflected, a distinct loop serving so to curve 
the rosette that it is made to face the surface of the ground 
below. 
April 16th.—Nematus croceus hatching abundantly from the 
pupe of last May; I collected the larve from the edges of the 
leaves of Salix caprea. The cocoons are dull blackish brown, 
somewhat larger than those of the gooseberry sawfly. The 
imagines appeared each morning, quite to the close of the month 
of April. I reared nearly a score. 
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